"where have all the young girls gone? / gone to young men every one / when will they ever learn?"

[larryhammer]

If anyone knows of a way to make the lyrics to "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" not so relentlessly heteronormative without reducing the pacifist message, I would appreciate the tip. Because, yanno, it makes a great lullabye otherwise.

Or maybe we can brainstorm here.

---L.

Comments

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Change girls to "folk." Men to "lovers" or similar but toddler-suitable word.

[larryhammer]

That's a possibility, especially the second.

---L.

[sovay]

If anyone knows of a way to make the lyrics to "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" not so relentlessly heteronormative without reducing the pacifist message, I would appreciate the tip.

"Gone to lovers, every one" would be my starting point. And then the lovers go for soldiers, regardless of gender, and the soldiers go to the graveyards all the same; everyone ends up flowers.

[larryhammer]

I'm liking that more and more.

---L.

[sovay]

I'm liking that more and more.

Cool! Post new lyrics whenever the folk process produces them?

[larryhammer]

I've been noodling around with another Pete Seeger song,* "Sweet Potato," which I knew only versions of the first two verses, only to discover I've been inventing essentially what actually comes next.

Folk process, thems powerful stuff.

* In the sense of he sang it, in this case, not wrote it.

---L.

[sovay]

which I knew only versions of the first two verses, only to discover I've been inventing essentially what actually comes next.

What's your version?

I have a folksong with colors which I realized only last year I had rearranged into a narrative along the lines of "Was bekam des Soldatens Weib?" I like my version better.

[larryhammer]

Chorus:
Roo roo roo roo roo, sing roo, sing hookydinkum
Roo roo roo roo roo, sing roo, sing roo

Soon as we all cook
Sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes
Soon as we all cook
Sweet potatoes
Eat 'em right straight up

Chorus

Soon as supper's et
Mama hollers (x3)
Soon as suppers et
Mama hollers
Go straight to bed.

Chorus

[larryhammer]

Okay, the substitution "young men" to "lovers" works in the line of the post subject, but not so much in the next verse, making it lovers have gone to soldiers. May need to noodle with variant wordings there.

---L.

[sovay]

Okay, the substitution "young men" to "lovers" works in the line of the post subject, but not so much in the next verse, making it lovers have gone to soldiers.

Why doesn't that work, when "young men gone to soldiers" does? I suppose you could always sing "gone for soldiers, every one" if that makes it clearer that it's a job, not a romance.

[larryhammer]

It's the antithesis of love > war that throws it off.

Right now, I'm trying flowers gone to children grown to grownups gone to soldiers, which is only marginally less awkward.

----L.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

I've always liked, "Where have all the hippies gone? Gone to boardrooms every one."

Then maybe, "Where have all the boardrooms gone? Gone to courtyards every one." And so we're back to flowers.

[larryhammer]

Hee.

---L.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

'Hippies' is actually more toddler-friendly. But they'd probably go to bedrooms everyone. Hm, there's your lullaby connection.

Hm, 'Where have all the babies gone? Gone to bedrooms everyone'
/ chldren
/ mommies
/ daddies
/ grandmas
/ granddads
/ people
/ Gone to bed now everyone.

Well, lullabies are supposed to be boring, aren't they?

[larryhammer]

Not so much boring as soothing. Sometimes close to the same, but not necessarily.

---L.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Or maybe "courtrooms" instead of courtyards?

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

But as judges, or defendants? ;-)